Tesco Marketing Mix

Tesco is a public limited company originally founded in 1919, with its first store inauguration in 1929 in Middlesex, United Kingdom. It resides in the retailing industry as a global grocery and general merchandising business. Through a series of strategic mergers and takeovers, Tesco has diversified both geographically and into areas such as the retailing of books, clothing, electronics, furniture, petrol and software; financial services; telecoms and internet services; DVD rental; and music downloads. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index (Wikipedia). Its main competitors include Asda, Sainsbury and Morrisons. In my opinion Tesco seems to dominate the whole genre of ‘supermarkets ‘. They have made this possible by implementing a successful marketing strategy and evaluating all the aspects of the marketing mix. With a concentrated focus on People as a variable for success, Tesco has become a worldwide recognized inspiration in simple retail. In this essay, I shall discuss the 7 P's of the marketing mix concerning Tesco and also analyze the importance of the ‘product' to Tesco as a marketing tool.

The marketing mix is the combination of marketing activities that an organization engages in so as to best meet the needs of its targeted market. In the last decade, Tesco brought about a lot of changes in its marketing strategies and has grown to become UK's number one retailer. "Today in the UK, the retailer has been the dominant force for more than 10 years" (Seth, 2011).

Tesco's product range is ever expanding and there is no limit to what it can offer its customers. Many of its stores stock over 40,000 different product lines and ranges from food and drinks to clothing and electronics. New product development is a vital part of the marketing mix for the UK's biggest retailer and this contributes to the consistent expansion of the product choice available. A new product can also be a replacement for an old one or produced solely to compete with a rival store's own product (New Product Development, 2002). Along with stocking all of the world's recognized brands, Tesco has its own brand which it aims at budget conscious customers. George, a line of clothing, is produced by Tesco and is made appealing to the consumers within a lower-middle income bracket. Premium products are sold to customers with high income who find quality the most significant aspect and Value products are sold to customers with lower incomes and a price sensitive attitude. With efficient product differentiation, Tesco effectively carries out the task of branding which aids increasing consumer loyalty. From consumer goods to specialty goods, Tesco succeeds in aiming its products at customers in order to maximize its profit potential.

Tesco has more than 4800 stores in around 15 countries across the world. This shows the importance